Personal trainer Janet Roget answers questions submitted by readers of ActiveStyle.
I have a confession to make: I don’t always follow my own fitness advice.
The suggestions I give to my clients and write about in this column are based on 15 years of experience as a personal trainer and the continuing education I receive in order to be certified by the National Academy of Sports Medicine. The advice I suggest is well-intentioned and offered as motivation to stay in shape and live a healthy life, and for the most part, I walk the walk.
But in one of my first columns, I advised weighing yourself every day. This was my solution for begging off the traditional New Year’s resolution (which studies show don’t work), and instead substituting a daily habit that has been proved to help keep weight gain in check. If you followed my advice and this daily habit works for you, then keep doing it.
Personally, I hate weighing myself. I dislike it so much that when I go to the doctor’s office for a routine procedure I refuse to weigh myself. I present such a persuasive argument that I usually win the tussle, but it always leaves me wondering, “What is the point of being put on the scales every time I enter a doctor’s office?” Because no matter what the scales say, there is never any discussion about my weight.
Growing up, my mother was always on a diet, and consequently she was always weighing herself at the same time every morning. When you are a kid, you notice these things. She was a wise mother and never inflicted her dieting routine on me.
During those teen years when appearance matters more than it should, I was sure I was the tallest, biggest person in the school, but my mother reassured me I was perfect just the way I was. “It is good to be tall and big boned,” she would say. “Big boned” to my German mother meant sturdy and healthy, her idea of the perfect body shape, but not exactly mine. For the most part I snapped out of it and felt fine about my weight and didn’t obsess over it one way or the other.
Like most people, I know my approximate weight by the way my clothes fit. I don’t necessarily need a reminder from the scales that my eating isn’t in check, and I don’t need the numbers on the scale to tell me how I should feel about myself. My weight tends to go up and down. Sometimes I am in better control of my eating than at other times, and if my blue jeans don’t fit, then I know it is time to get a grip. I hunker down, control my eating and exercise more regularly.
The other part of this confessional is that, thanks to my mother, I feel good about myself even if my jeans are tighter than I like.
There is too much emphasis about numbers on the scale, a point made loud and clear by a former client who did not like the fact that I suggested daily weighing as a way to motivate healthy behavior.
We have an obsession with being thin, and as a result, we are putting unhealthy emphasis on body weight. Our young people are inundated with unreal body images on TV and in the movies and magazines that are not healthy. Magazines with names like Health and Fitness and Shape tout healthy eating and safe exercising but send a mixed message by using frail, super-thin models as the example of a healthy physique. Due to this fixation with being overly thin, eating disorders for all age groups are at an all-time high.
Some people are motivated to keep their eating habits in check if they weigh themselves every day. But for some, getting on the scales creates a fixation with a number that triggers an unhealthy downward spiral that can get out of hand.
If you are like me and you don’t like to get on the scales but you want a guide to your overall weight health, the body mass index (BMI) is a helpful measure of overweight and obesity. It is calculated from your height and weight and is used by many doctors as an indicator to assess your risk for diseases associated with body fat. The easiest way to calculate your BMI is to go online and let your computer do the math for you. Go to nhlbisupport.com/bmi.
Knowing your body weight is helpful in assessing your overall health, but not at the expense of putting too much importance on this one measurement. I don’t always need the scales to know when I need to lose weight. I can tell by the way my clothes fit, my lack of energy or the difficulty of completing my morning runs. It has been a long winter and the pounds didn’t come on overnight, but it’s time to take stock, pay attention to what I eat and drink and get more exercise.
Don’t tell my mom. She thinks I am perfect, big bones and all.
Write to personal trainer Janet Roget in care of ActiveStyle at P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203, or e-mail
ActiveStyle, Pages 23 on 04/22/2013